Preprints

Filtering by Subject: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Functional coherence among miRNA targets: a potential metric for assessing biological signal among target prediction methods in non-model species

Christopher Wheat, Rachel A. Steward, Yu Okamura, et al.

Published: 2023-11-30
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences

Although miRNA regulation of protein production is a likely target of adaptive evolution, high false-positive rates in the identification of mRNAs targeted by miRNAs in non-model species’ complicates interpretation of recent advances. Here we document the challenges and then outline steps for the community to address these challenges.

Vocal Dimorphism in Anna’s Hummingbirds

Sierra Ru-Yi Glassman, Adi Domer, Adi Domer

Published: 2023-11-28
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Ornithology, Zoology

Whereas vocal sexual dimorphism is widespread amongst birds, it has been historically overlooked in non-passerines such as hummingbirds. By evaluating correlations among sex, behaviors, and vocalizations, the meaning and utility of intentional sound production may be inferred. Anna's Hummingbirds (Calypte anna) exhibit pronounced sexual dimorphism, with males being larger and having more vibrant [...]

this version should be deleted, it is duplicated

Leandro Do Nascimento, Cristian Pérez-Granados, Janderson B. Rodrigues Alencar, et al.

Published: 2023-11-28
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

this version should be deleted it is duplicated with the ID 6292 which is the correct version. Please delete this entry. I don't know why you guys have created two entries and this one with a wrong file that reads for review only.

Opinion: Missing half the picture, focus on stony corals during bleaching events has left critical knowledge gaps in our understanding of reef-scale bleaching and recovery

Rosemary Kate Steinberg

Published: 2023-11-28
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Honest Signalling Made Simple

Jacob Chisausky, Carl Bergstrom, Kevin Zollman, et al.

Published: 2023-11-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences

Honest communication is a common phenomenon in animal behaviour, and is frequently explained by appeal to the so-called handicap hypothesis by which signal costs deter dishonesty. However, the handicap models commonly used to explain honest signalling have has been subject to several lines of criticism in recent literature. This trend may have led researchers outside of the field of animal [...]

A pluralistic framework for measuring and stratifying heterogeneity in meta-analyses

Yefeng Yang, Daniel W.A. Noble, Rebecca Spake, et al.

Published: 2023-11-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Statistics and Probability

  1. Measuring heterogeneity, or inconsistency, among effect sizes is a crucial step for interpreting the meta-analytic evidence across diverse taxonomic groups and spatiotemporal contexts. However, ecologists and evolutionary biologists often interpret mean population effects (i.e., meta-analytic mean effect size) as consistent, either explicitly or implicitly, without proper [...]

Amazonian soundscapes: unravelling the secrets of insect acoustic niches in diverse habitats

Leandro Do Nascimento, Cristian Pérez-Granados, Janderson B. Rodrigues Alencar, et al.

Published: 2023-11-22
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Insects are the most diverse animal taxon on Earth and play a key role in ecosystem functioning. However, they are often neglected from biodiversity surveys due to the difficulties of monitoring this small and hyper-diverse taxon. With technological advancements in biomonitoring and analytical methods, these shortcomings may finally be addressed. Here, we performed passive acoustic monitoring at [...]

Local and regional processes drive distance decay in structure in a spatial multilayer plant-pollinator network

Agustin Vitali, Maya Goldstein, Matan Markfeld, et al.

Published: 2023-11-21
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences

Understanding spatial variation in species distribution and community structure is at the core of biogeography and community ecology. Nevertheless, the effect of distance on metacommunity structure remains little studied. We use plant-pollinator network data from the Canary Islands to examine how plant-pollinator community structure changes across geographical distances at a regional scale and [...]

Covariance reaction norms: A flexible approach to estimating continuous environmental effects on quantitative genetic and phenotypic (co)variances

Jordan Scott Martin

Published: 2023-11-21
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Zoology

Estimating quantitative genetic and phenotypic (co)variances plays a crucial role in investigating key evolutionary ecological phenomena, such as developmental integration, life history tradeoffs, and niche specialization, as well as in describing selection and predicting multivariate evolution in the wild. While most studies assume (co)variances are fixed over short timescales, environmental [...]

Octocoral Symbiodiniaceae, but not bacterial communities, are resistant to compositional changes from heat stress on a subtropical reef

Rosemary Kate Steinberg, Katherine A Dafforn, Emma L Johnston, et al.

Published: 2023-11-20
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Microbes are essential to the holobiome of all organisms, so when organisms are impacted by environmental stressors the changes to microbial communities can inform on the health state of the host and even cause host disease. In early 2019 marine heatwaves occurred across eastern Australia, resulting in differential bleaching across Lord Howe Island reefs. Here we examined the Symbiodiniaceae and [...]

Extreme events and coupled socio-ecological systems

Easton R White, Sophie Wulfing

Published: 2023-11-20
Subjects: Agricultural and Resource Economics, Behavioral Economics, Demography, Population, and Ecology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Human Ecology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Rare, but potentially impactful, extreme events in socio-ecological systems (SES) can trigger significant consequences. The scarcity of theoretical frameworks for such events in SES is due to data limitations and difficulty in building coupled SES models. We explore the effect of extreme events on coupled socio-ecological systems using two stylized case studies: harvesting of old-growth forests [...]

The Pangolin Universal Notching System (PUNS): A Foundational Scale Marking Methodology for Pangolins

Jeannie Jo-Miller Martin, Jacqueline Y Buckley, Ellen Connelly, et al.

Published: 2023-11-20
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Zoology

Abstract Due to significant anthropogenic pressures, all eight established species of pangolin are listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the highest level of international protection possible. Pangolin population status assessments are incomplete, particularly in areas with high exploitation and limited field assets. [...]

Forecasting insect dynamics in a changing world

Christie A Bahlai

Published: 2023-11-16
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology

Predicting how insects will respond to stressors through time is difficult because of the diversity of insects, environments, and approaches used to monitor and model. Forecasting models take correlative/statistical, mechanistic models, and integrated forms; in some cases, temporal processes can be inferred from spatial models. Because of heterogeneity associated with broad community [...]

Polyploid plants take cytonuclear perturbations in stride

Daniel B Sloan, Justin L Conover, Corrinne E Grover, et al.

Published: 2023-11-13
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Plant Biology

Hybridization in plants is often accompanied by nuclear genome doubling (allopolyploidy), which has been hypothesized to perturb interactions between nuclear and cytoplasmic (mitochondrial and plastid) genomes by creating imbalances in the relative copy number of these genomes and producing genetic incompatibilities between maternally derived cytoplasmic genomes and the half of the allopolyploid [...]

Refining the trophic diversity, ecological network structure, and bottom-up importance of prey groups for temperate reef fishes

Salvador Zarco-Perello, Scott Bennett, Jordan Goetze, et al.

Published: 2023-11-07
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology

Marine fish communities are highly diverse, including all trophic levels of consumers and contributing to many ecosystem processes. Understanding the specific functional roles of many fish species and the importance of different prey groups for sustaining fish communities has, however, been limited by the historical classification of fishes into a few coarse trophic guilds. Using detailed diet [...]

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